MY TECH.

Die-hard fan on flight of fantasy

It has taken hold of him again, as it does every spring. With baseball's opening week upon us, Neil Cohen is awash in hope.

But his hope is different from the kind experienced by legions of tortured Chicago baseball fans. Although he's a longtime fan of both local teams, the former Cook County prosecutor explained that his hope has to do with life.

"I know the dark things that people are capable of," he said. He has seen them. "To me, baseball is fun, kind and gentle. It's inclusive rather than exclusive. And isn't that a lot like you should play the game of life?"

For the last 11 years, Cohen has played in fantasy baseball leagues at Baseball Manager (www.baseballmanager.com).

Fantasy leagues long have been popular among sports enthusiasts and have grown dramatically with the mainstream reach of the Internet.

Cohen "manages" two teams in two different leagues through Baseball Manager. Each league is made up of 10 teams that compete against each other over a 162-game season (cost to participate: $80 for a 162-game season and $24.95 for a 54-game season). At the start of each year there is a draft, in which managers select their players based on a fixed payroll for each team.

Cohen determines his starting lineup based on how his players are performing. Baseball Manager's gaming engine processes wins and losses or home runs and stolen bases in its fantasy leagues based on the actual performance of major leaguers during games.

"So to play the game well, you need to know the details. You need to know whether players are on the rise or past their peak."

In the morning, Cohen logs on to check his fantasy teams' results and to make adjustments for coming games. In all, he spends about 45 minutes a day during the season minding to his hobby.

Baseball Manager also features a popular message board called Diamond Club, which keeps players in touch.

"It's a microcosm of a little community," Cohen said. "You deal with all kinds of people, and that's the good thing about the Internet: People don't know your color, your sex, your age. I find that to be a wonderful thing. It's an equalizer."

And the little community is quite strong.

Cohen is organizing an outing to Wrigley Field for about 25 fellow fantasy managers this August.

"It's a substitute for staying young," he explained. "It helps me stay in contact with baseball, which was a big part of my life."

The attorney paused to think for a moment and concluded by asking two perfect questions:

"Baseball is a return to innocence in a way, don't you think? And so, what's wrong with that?"